Qos configuration based on channel quality

ABSTRACT

Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to methods and apparatus for quality of service (QoS) configuration for wireless communications. Certain aspects provide a method for wireless communication by a base station. The method generally includes determining a channel quality for a user equipment communicating on a wireless channel. The method further includes selecting one or more values for the one or more parameters for providing QoS to the user equipment in a range of parameter values based on the determined channel quality.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication Ser. No. 62/436,862, filed Dec. 20, 2016. The content of theprovisional application is hereby incorporated by reference in theirentirety.

INTRODUCTION

The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems, andmore particularly, to methods and apparatus for providing quality ofservice (QoS) configurations for wireless communications.

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide varioustelecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging,and broadcasts. Typical wireless communication systems may employmultiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication withmultiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth,transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access technologies includeLong Term Evolution (LTE) systems, code division multiple access (CDMA)systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequencydivision multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency divisionmultiple access (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier frequency divisionmultiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous codedivision multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems.

In some examples, a wireless multiple-access communication system mayinclude a number of base stations, each simultaneously supportingcommunication for multiple communication devices, otherwise known asuser equipment (UEs). In LTE or LTE-A network, a set of one or more basestations may define an eNodeB (eNB). In other examples (e.g., in a nextgeneration or 5G network), a wireless multiple access communicationsystem may include a number of distributed units (DUs) (e.g., edge units(EUs), edge nodes (ENs), radio heads (RHs), smart radio heads (SRHs),transmission reception points (TRPs), etc.) in communication with anumber of central units (CUs) (e.g., central nodes (CNs), access nodecontrollers (ANCs), etc.), where a set of one or more distributed units,in communication with a central unit, may define an access node (e.g., anew radio base station (NR BS), a new radio node-B (NR NB), a networknode, 5G NB, gNB, gNodeB, eNB, etc.). A base station or DU maycommunicate with a set of UEs on downlink channels (e.g., fortransmissions from a base station or to a UE) and uplink channels (e.g.,for transmissions from a UE to a base station or distributed unit).

These multiple access technologies have been adopted in varioustelecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enablesdifferent wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national,regional, and even global level. An example of an emergingtelecommunication standard is new radio (NR), for example, 5G radioaccess. NR is a set of enhancements to the LTE mobile standardpromulgated by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). It isdesigned to better support mobile broadband Internet access by improvingspectral efficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use ofnew spectrum, and better integrating with other open standards usingOFDMA with a cyclic prefix (CP) on the downlink (DL) and on the uplink(UL) as well as support beamforming, multiple-input multiple-output(MIMO) antenna technology, and carrier aggregation.

However, as the demand for mobile broadband access continues toincrease, there exists a need for further improvements in NR technology.Preferably, these improvements should be applicable to othermulti-access technologies and the telecommunication standards thatemploy these technologies.

BRIEF SUMMARY

The systems, methods, and devices of the disclosure each have severalaspects, no single one of which is solely responsible for its desirableattributes. Without limiting the scope of this disclosure as expressedby the claims which follow, some features will now be discussed briefly.After considering this discussion, and particularly after reading thesection entitled “Detailed Description” one will understand how thefeatures of this disclosure provide advantages that include improvedcommunications between access points and stations in a wireless network.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a method for qualityof service (QoS) configuration for wireless communications. The methodincludes determining a channel quality for a user equipmentcommunicating on a wireless channel. The method further includesselecting one or more values for the one or more parameters forproviding QoS to the user equipment in a range of parameter values basedon the determined channel quality.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus. Theapparatus includes a memory and a processor. The memory and theprocessor are configured to determine a channel quality for a userequipment communicating on a wireless channel. The memory and theprocessor are further configured to select one or more values for theone or more parameters for providing quality of service (QoS) to theuser equipment in a range of parameter values based on the determinedchannel quality.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide an apparatus. Theapparatus includes means for determining a channel quality for a userequipment communicating on a wireless channel. The apparatus furtherincludes means for selecting one or more values for the one or moreparameters for providing quality of service (QoS) to the user equipmentin a range of parameter values based on the determined channel quality.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide a computer readablemedium having instructions stored thereon for performing a method forquality of service (QoS) configuration for wireless communications. Anexemplary method generally includes determining a channel quality for auser equipment communicating on a wireless channel. The method furtherincludes selecting one or more values for the one or more parameters forproviding QoS to the user equipment in a range of parameter values basedon the determined channel quality.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the one or moreaspects comprise the features hereinafter fully described andparticularly pointed out in the claims. The following description andthe annexed drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative featuresof the one or more aspects. These features are indicative, however, ofbut a few of the various ways in which the principles of various aspectsmay be employed, and this description is intended to include all suchaspects and their equivalents.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

So that the manner in which the above-recited features of the presentdisclosure can be understood in detail, a more particular description,briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to aspects, some ofwhich are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted,however, that the appended drawings illustrate only certain typicalaspects of this disclosure and are therefore not to be consideredlimiting of its scope, for the description may admit to other equallyeffective aspects.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an exampletelecommunications system, in accordance with certain aspects of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example logical architectureof a distributed RAN, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example physical architecture of adistributed RAN, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating a design of anexample BS and user equipment (UE), in accordance with certain aspectsof the present disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing examples for implementing a communicationprotocol stack, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a DL-centric subframe, in accordancewith certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of an UL-centric subframe, in accordancewith certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example bearer architecture in a 5G network, inaccordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 9 illustrates example operations for wireless communications, forexample, for providing quality of service (QoS) configurations forwireless communications, in accordance with certain aspects of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example plot of QoS performance with respect tochannel quality for a tier-based QoS configuration, in accordance withcertain aspects of the present disclosure.

To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have beenused, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common tothe figures. It is contemplated that elements disclosed in one aspectmay be beneficially utilized on other aspects without specificrecitation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the present disclosure provide apparatus, methods, processingsystems, and computer readable mediums for new radio (NR) (new radioaccess technology or 5G technology).

NR may support various wireless communication services, such as Enhancedmobile broadband (eMBB) targeting wide bandwidth (e.g. 80 MHz beyond),millimeter wave (mmW) targeting high carrier frequency (e.g. 60 GHz),massive MTC (mMTC) targeting non-backward compatible MTC techniques,and/or mission critical targeting ultra reliable low latencycommunications (URLLC). These services may include latency andreliability requirements. These services may also have differenttransmission time intervals (TTI) to meet respective quality of service(QoS) requirements. In addition, these services may co-exist in the samesubframe.

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to providing a level of QoS forwireless communications by a user equipment (UE) based on channelquality of the UE. A scheduling entity (e.g., base station) maydetermine a channel quality for the UE communicating on a wirelesschannel. For example, in some aspects, the scheduling entity maydetermine the channel quality based on a channel quality metric receivedfrom the UE. The scheduling entity may select values for parameter(s)(e.g., packet delay budget, prioritized bit rate, guaranteed bit rate,packet error loss, etc.) for providing QoS to the UE in a range ofvalues for the parameter(s) based on the determined channel quality.Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques forassigning the UE to a class of a plurality of classes. Each class maycorrespond to a different range of values for the one or more parametersfor providing QoS. In some aspects, the scheduling entity may selectvalues for the parameter(s) for providing the QoS to the UE in the rangeof parameter values corresponding to the UE's assigned class.

The following description provides examples, and is not limiting of thescope, applicability, or examples set forth in the claims. Changes maybe made in the function and arrangement of elements discussed withoutdeparting from the scope of the disclosure. Various examples may omit,substitute, or add various procedures or components as appropriate. Forinstance, the methods described may be performed in an order differentfrom that described, and various steps may be added, omitted, orcombined. Also, features described with respect to some examples may becombined in some other examples. For example, an apparatus may beimplemented or a method may be practiced using any number of the aspectsset forth herein. In addition, the scope of the disclosure is intendedto cover such an apparatus or method which is practiced using otherstructure, functionality, or structure and functionality in addition toor other than the various aspects of the disclosure set forth herein. Itshould be understood that any aspect of the disclosure disclosed hereinmay be embodied by one or more elements of a claim. The word “exemplary”is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, orillustration.” Any aspect described herein as “exemplary” is notnecessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over otheraspects.

The techniques described herein may be used for various wirelesscommunication networks such as LTE, CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, SC-FDMA andother networks. The terms “network” and “system” are often usedinterchangeably. A CDMA network may implement a radio technology such asUniversal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), cdma2000, etc. UTRA includesWideband CDMA (WCDMA) and other variants of CDMA. cdma2000 coversIS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. A TDMA network may implement aradio technology such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM).An OFDMA network may implement a radio technology such as NR (e.g. 5GRA), Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.11(Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDMA, etc. UTRA andE-UTRA are part of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). NRis an emerging wireless communications technology under development inconjunction with the 5G Technology Forum (5GTF). 3GPP Long TermEvolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) are releases of UMTS that useE-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A and GSM are described indocuments from an organization named “3rd Generation PartnershipProject” (3GPP). cdma2000 and UMB are described in documents from anorganization named “3rd Generation Partnership Project 2” (3GPP2). Thetechniques described herein may be used for the wireless networks andradio technologies mentioned above as well as other wireless networksand radio technologies. For clarity, while aspects may be describedherein using terminology commonly associated with 3G and/or 4G wirelesstechnologies, aspects of the present disclosure can be applied in othergeneration-based communication systems, such as 5G and later, includingNR technologies.

Example Wireless Communications System

FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless network 100, such as a new radio(NR) or 5G network, in which aspects of the present disclosure may beperformed.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the wireless network 100 may include a numberof BSs 110 and other network entities. A BS may be a station thatcommunicates with UEs. Each BS 110 may provide communication coveragefor a particular geographic area. In 3GPP, the term “cell” can refer toa coverage area of a Node B and/or a Node B subsystem serving thiscoverage area, depending on the context in which the term is used. In NRsystems, the term “cell” and eNB, gNB, gNodeB, Node B, 5G NB, AP, NR BS,NR BS, or TRP may be interchangeable. In some examples, a cell may notnecessarily be stationary, and the geographic area of the cell may moveaccording to the location of a mobile base station. In some examples,the base stations may be interconnected to one another and/or to one ormore other base stations or network nodes (not shown) in the wirelessnetwork 100 through various types of backhaul interfaces such as adirect physical connection, a virtual network, or the like using anysuitable transport network.

In general, any number of wireless networks may be deployed in a givengeographic area. Each wireless network may support a particular radioaccess technology (RAT) and may operate on one or more frequencies. ARAT may also be referred to as a radio technology, an air interface,etc. A frequency may also be referred to as a carrier, a frequencychannel, etc. Each frequency may support a single RAT in a givengeographic area in order to avoid interference between wireless networksof different RATs. In some cases, NR or 5G RAT networks may be deployed.

A BS may provide communication coverage for a macro cell, a pico cell, afemto cell, and/or other types of cell. A macro cell may cover arelatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers in radius)and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscription. Apico cell may cover a relatively small geographic area and may allowunrestricted access by UEs with service subscription. A femto cell maycover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home) and may allowrestricted access by UEs having association with the femto cell (e.g.,UEs in a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG), UEs for users in the home,etc.). A BS for a macro cell may be referred to as a macro BS. A BS fora pico cell may be referred to as a pico BS. A BS for a femto cell maybe referred to as a femto BS or a home BS. In the example shown in FIG.1, the BSs 110 a, 110 b and 110 c may be macro BSs for the macro cells102 a, 102 b and 102 c, respectively. The BS 110 x may be a pico BS fora pico cell 102 x. The BSs 110 y and 110 z may be femto BS for the femtocells 102 y and 102 z, respectively. A BS may support one or multiple(e.g., three) cells.

The wireless network 100 may also include relay stations. A relaystation is a station that receives a transmission of data and/or otherinformation from an upstream station (e.g., a BS or a UE) and sends atransmission of the data and/or other information to a downstreamstation (e.g., a UE or a BS). A relay station may also be a UE thatrelays transmissions for other UEs. In the example shown in FIG. 1, arelay station 110 r may communicate with the BS 110 a and a UE 120 r inorder to facilitate communication between the BS 110 a and the UE 120 r.A relay station may also be referred to as a relay BS, a relay, etc.

The wireless network 100 may be a heterogeneous network that includesBSs of different types, e.g., macro BS, pico BS, femto BS, relays, etc.These different types of BSs may have different transmit power levels,different coverage areas, and different impact on interference in thewireless network 100. For example, macro BS may have a high transmitpower level (e.g., 20 Watts) whereas pico BS, femto BS, and relays mayhave a lower transmit power level (e.g., 1 Watt).

The wireless network 100 may support synchronous or asynchronousoperation. For synchronous operation, the BSs may have similar frametiming, and transmissions from different BSs may be approximatelyaligned in time. For asynchronous operation, the BSs may have differentframe timing, and transmissions from different BSs may not be aligned intime. The techniques described herein may be used for both synchronousand asynchronous operation.

A network controller 130 may be coupled to a set of BSs and providecoordination and control for these BSs. The network controller 130 maycommunicate with the BSs 110 via a backhaul. The BSs 110 may alsocommunicate with one another, e.g., directly or indirectly via wirelessor wireline backhaul.

The UEs 120 (e.g., 120 x, 120 y, etc.) may be dispersed throughout thewireless network 100, and each UE may be stationary or mobile. A UE mayalso be referred to as a mobile station, a terminal, an access terminal,a subscriber unit, a station, a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), acellular phone, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), awireless modem, a wireless communication device, a handheld device, alaptop computer, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station,a tablet, a camera, a gaming device, a netbook, a smartbook, anultrabook, a medical device or medical equipment, a biometricsensor/device, a wearable device such as a smart watch, smart clothing,smart glasses, a smart wrist band, smart jewelry (e.g., a smart ring, asmart bracelet, etc.), an entertainment device (e.g., a music device, avideo device, a satellite radio, etc.), a vehicular component or sensor,a smart meter/sensor, industrial manufacturing equipment, a globalpositioning system device, or any other suitable device that isconfigured to communicate via a wireless or wired medium. Some UEs maybe considered evolved or machine-type communication (MTC) devices orevolved MTC (eMTC) devices. MTC and eMTC UEs include, for example,robots, drones, remote devices, sensors, meters, monitors, locationtags, etc., that may communicate with a BS, another device (e.g., remotedevice), or some other entity. A wireless node may provide, for example,connectivity for or to a network (e.g., a wide area network such asInternet or a cellular network) via a wired or wireless communicationlink. Some UEs may be considered Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices.

In FIG. 1, a solid line with double arrows indicates desiredtransmissions between a UE and a serving BS, which is a BS designated toserve the UE on the downlink and/or uplink. A dashed line with doublearrows indicates interfering transmissions between a UE and a BS.

In certain aspects, as shown, a BS 110 may be configured to determine achannel quality of UE 120 and select parameter value(s) for providingQoS to the UE based on the determined channel quality, according tocertain aspects discussed herein. In some aspects, as shown, the BS 110may use QoS component 140 to determine the channel quality of the UE andselect the parameter value(s). Note that while QoS component 140 isshown separate from BS 110, in some aspects, QoS component 140 may bewithin BS 110.

Certain wireless networks (e.g., LTE) utilize orthogonal frequencydivision multiplexing (OFDM) on the downlink and single-carrierfrequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink. OFDM and SC-FDMpartition the system bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers,which are also commonly referred to as tones, bins, etc. Each subcarriermay be modulated with data. In general, modulation symbols are sent inthe frequency domain with OFDM and in the time domain with SC-FDM. Thespacing between adjacent subcarriers may be fixed, and the total numberof subcarriers (K) may be dependent on the system bandwidth. Forexample, the spacing of the subcarriers may be 15 kHz and the minimumresource allocation (called a ‘resource block’) may be 12 subcarriers(or 180 kHz). Consequently, the nominal FFT size may be equal to 128,256, 512, 1024 or 2048 for system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10 or 20megahertz (MHz), respectively. The system bandwidth may also bepartitioned into subbands. For example, a subband may cover 1.08 MHz(i.e., 6 resource blocks), and there may be 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16 subbandsfor system bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10 or 20 MHz, respectively.

While aspects of the examples described herein may be associated withLTE technologies, aspects of the present disclosure may be applicablewith other wireless communications systems, such as NR. NR may utilizeOFDM with a CP on the uplink and downlink and include support forhalf-duplex operation using time division duplex (TDD). A singlecomponent carrier bandwidth of 100 MHz may be supported. NR resourceblocks may span 12 sub-carriers with a sub-carrier bandwidth of 75 kHzover a 0.1 ms duration. Each radio frame may consist of 50 subframeswith a length of 10 ms. Consequently, each subframe may have a length of0.2 ms. Each subframe may indicate a link direction (i.e., DL or UL) fordata transmission and the link direction for each subframe may bedynamically switched. Each subframe may include DL/UL data as well asDL/UL control data. UL and DL subframes for NR may be as described inmore detail below with respect to FIGS. 6 and 7. Beamforming may besupported and beam direction may be dynamically configured. MIMOtransmissions with precoding may also be supported. MIMO configurationsin the DL may support up to 8 transmit antennas with multi-layer DLtransmissions up to 8 streams and up to 2 streams per UE. Multi-layertransmissions with up to 2 streams per UE may be supported. Aggregationof multiple cells may be supported with up to 8 serving cells.Alternatively, NR may support a different air interface, other than anOFDM-based. NR networks may include entities such CUs and/or DUs.

In some examples, access to the air interface may be scheduled, whereina scheduling entity (e.g., a base station) allocates resources forcommunication among some or all devices and equipment within its servicearea or cell. Within the present disclosure, as discussed further below,the scheduling entity may be responsible for scheduling, assigning,reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one or more subordinateentities. That is, for scheduled communication, subordinate entitiesutilize resources allocated by the scheduling entity. Base stations arenot the only entities that may function as a scheduling entity. That is,in some examples, a UE may function as a scheduling entity, schedulingresources for one or more subordinate entities (e.g., one or more otherUEs). In this example, the UE is functioning as a scheduling entity, andother UEs utilize resources scheduled by the UE for wirelesscommunication. A UE may function as a scheduling entity in apeer-to-peer (P2P) network, and/or in a mesh network. In a mesh networkexample, UEs may optionally communicate directly with one another inaddition to communicating with the scheduling entity.

Thus, in a wireless communication network with a scheduled access totime-frequency resources and having a cellular configuration, a P2Pconfiguration, and a mesh configuration, a scheduling entity and one ormore subordinate entities may communicate utilizing the scheduledresources.

As noted above, a RAN may include a CU and DUs. A NR BS (e.g., eNB, 5GNode B, Node B, transmission reception point (TRP), access point (AP))may correspond to one or multiple BSs. NR cells can be configured asaccess cell (ACells) or data only cells (DCells). For example, the RAN(e.g., a central unit or distributed unit) can configure the cells.DCells may be cells used for carrier aggregation or dual connectivity,but not used for initial access, cell selection/reselection, orhandover. In some cases DCells may not transmit synchronizationsignals—in some case cases DCells may transmit SS. NR BSs may transmitdownlink signals to UEs indicating the cell type. Based on the cell typeindication, the UE may communicate with the NR BS. For example, the UEmay determine NR BSs to consider for cell selection, access, handover,and/or measurement based on the indicated cell type.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example logical architecture of a distributedradio access network (RAN) 200, which may be implemented in the wirelesscommunication system illustrated in FIG. 1. A 5G access node 206 mayinclude an access node controller (ANC) 202. The ANC may be a centralunit (CU) of the distributed RAN 200. The backhaul interface to the nextgeneration core network (NG-CN) 204 may terminate at the ANC. Thebackhaul interface to neighboring next generation access nodes (NG-ANs)may terminate at the ANC. The ANC may include one or more TRPs 208(which may also be referred to as BSs, NR BSs, Node Bs, 5G NBs, APs, orsome other term). As described above, a TRP may be used interchangeablywith “cell.”

The TRPs 208 may be a DU. The TRPs may be connected to one ANC (ANC 202)or more than one ANC (not illustrated). For example, for RAN sharing,radio as a service (RaaS), and service specific AND deployments, the TRPmay be connected to more than one ANC. A TRP may include one or moreantenna ports. The TRPs may be configured to individually (e.g., dynamicselection) or jointly (e.g., joint transmission) serve traffic to a UE.

The local architecture 200 may be used to illustrate fronthauldefinition. The architecture may be defined that support fronthaulingsolutions across different deployment types. For example, thearchitecture may be based on transmit network capabilities (e.g.,bandwidth, latency, and/or jitter).

The architecture may share features and/or components with LTE.According to aspects, the next generation AN (NG-AN) 210 may supportdual connectivity with NR. The NG-AN may share a common fronthaul forLTE and NR.

The architecture may enable cooperation between and among TRPs 208. Forexample, cooperation may be preset within a TRP and/or across TRPs viathe ANC 202. According to aspects, no inter-TRP interface may beneeded/present.

According to aspects, a dynamic configuration of split logical functionsmay be present within the architecture 200. As will be described in moredetail with reference to FIG. 5, the Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer,Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer, Radio Link Control (RLC)layer, Medium Access Control (MAC) layer, and a Physical (PHY) layersmay be adaptably placed at the DU or CU (e.g., TRP or ANC,respectively). According to certain aspects, a BS may include a centralunit (CU) (e.g., ANC 202) and/or one or more distributed units (e.g.,one or more TRPs 208).

FIG. 3 illustrates an example physical architecture of a distributed RAN300, according to aspects of the present disclosure. A centralized corenetwork unit (C-CU) 302 may host core network functions. The C-CU may becentrally deployed. C-CU functionality may be offloaded (e.g., toadvanced wireless services (AWS)), in an effort to handle peak capacity.

A centralized RAN unit (C-RU) 304 may host one or more ANC functions.Optionally, the C-RU may host core network functions locally. The C-RUmay have distributed deployment. The C-RU may be closer to the networkedge.

A DU 306 may host one or more TRPs (edge node (EN), an edge unit (EU), aradio head (RH), a smart radio head (SRH), or the like). The DU may belocated at edges of the network with radio frequency (RF) functionality.

FIG. 4 illustrates example components of the BS 110 and UE 120illustrated in FIG. 1, which may be used to implement aspects of thepresent disclosure. As described above, the BS may include a TRP. One ormore components of the BS 110 and UE 120 may be used to practice aspectsof the present disclosure. For example, antennas 452, Tx/Rx 222,processors 466, 458, 464, and/or controller/processor 480 of the UE 120and/or antennas 434, processors 460, 420, 438, and/orcontroller/processor 440 of the BS 110 may be used to perform theoperations described herein and illustrated with reference to FIG. 9.

FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of a design of a BS 110 and a UE 120, whichmay be one of the BSs and one of the UEs in FIG. 1. For a restrictedassociation scenario, the base station 110 may be the macro BS 110 c inFIG. 1, and the UE 120 may be the UE 120 y. The base station 110 mayalso be a base station of some other type. The base station 110 may beequipped with antennas 434 a through 434 t, and the UE 120 may beequipped with antennas 452 a through 452 r.

At the base station 110, a transmit processor 420 may receive data froma data source 412 and control information from a controller/processor440. The control information may be for the Physical Broadcast Channel(PBCH), Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH), PhysicalHybrid ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH), Physical Downlink Control Channel(PDCCH), etc. The data may be for the Physical Downlink Shared Channel(PDSCH), etc. The processor 420 may process (e.g., encode and symbolmap) the data and control information to obtain data symbols and controlsymbols, respectively. The processor 420 may also generate referencesymbols, e.g., for the PSS, SSS, and cell-specific reference signal. Atransmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) processor 430 mayperform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) on the data symbols, thecontrol symbols, and/or the reference symbols, if applicable, and mayprovide output symbol streams to the modulators (MODs) 432 a through 432t. Each modulator 432 may process a respective output symbol stream(e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain an output sample stream. Each modulator432 may further process (e.g., convert to analog, amplify, filter, andupconvert) the output sample stream to obtain a downlink signal.Downlink signals from modulators 432 a through 432 t may be transmittedvia the antennas 434 a through 434 t, respectively.

At the UE 120, the antennas 452 a through 452 r may receive the downlinksignals from the base station 110 and may provide received signals tothe demodulators (DEMODs) 454 a through 454 r, respectively. Eachdemodulator 454 may condition (e.g., filter, amplify, downconvert, anddigitize) a respective received signal to obtain input samples. Eachdemodulator 454 may further process the input samples (e.g., for OFDM,etc.) to obtain received symbols. A MIMO detector 456 may obtainreceived symbols from all the demodulators 454 a through 454 r, performMIMO detection on the received symbols if applicable, and providedetected symbols. A receive processor 458 may process (e.g., demodulate,deinterleave, and decode) the detected symbols, provide decoded data forthe UE 120 to a data sink 460, and provide decoded control informationto a controller/processor 480.

On the uplink, at the UE 120, a transmit processor 464 may receive andprocess data (e.g., for the Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH)) froma data source 462 and control information (e.g., for the Physical UplinkControl Channel (PUCCH) from the controller/processor 480. The transmitprocessor 464 may also generate reference symbols for a referencesignal. The symbols from the transmit processor 464 may be precoded by aTX MIMO processor 466 if applicable, further processed by thedemodulators 454 a through 454 r (e.g., for SC-FDM, etc.), andtransmitted to the base station 110. At the BS 110, the uplink signalsfrom the UE 120 may be received by the antennas 434, processed by themodulators 432, detected by a MIMO detector 436 if applicable, andfurther processed by a receive processor 438 to obtain decoded data andcontrol information sent by the UE 120. The receive processor 438 mayprovide the decoded data to a data sink 439 and the decoded controlinformation to the controller/processor 440.

The controllers/processors 440 and 480 may direct the operation at thebase station 110 and the UE 120, respectively. The processor 440 and/orother processors and modules at the base station 110 may perform ordirect, e.g., the execution of the functional blocks illustrated in FIG.9, and/or other processes for the techniques described herein. In someaspects, the controller/processor 440 (and/or other modules at the basestation 110) may use QoS component 140 to determine a channel quality ofthe UE and select parameter value(s) for providing QoS to the UE,according to the techniques discussed herein. The processor 480 and/orother processors and modules at the UE 120 may also perform or directprocesses for the techniques described herein. The memories 442 and 482may store data and program codes for the BS 110 and the UE 120,respectively. A scheduler 444 may schedule UEs for data transmission onthe downlink and/or uplink.

FIG. 5 illustrates a diagram 500 showing examples for implementing acommunications protocol stack, according to aspects of the presentdisclosure. The illustrated communications protocol stacks may beimplemented by devices operating in a in a 5G system (e.g., a systemthat supports uplink-based mobility). Diagram 500 illustrates acommunications protocol stack including a Radio Resource Control (RRC)layer 510, a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer 515, a RadioLink Control (RLC) layer 520, a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer 525,and a Physical (PHY) layer 530. In various examples the layers of aprotocol stack may be implemented as separate modules of software,portions of a processor or ASIC, portions of non-collocated devicesconnected by a communications link, or various combinations thereof.Collocated and non-collocated implementations may be used, for example,in a protocol stack for a network access device (e.g., ANs, CUs, and/orDUs) or a UE.

A first option 505-a shows a split implementation of a protocol stack,in which implementation of the protocol stack is split between acentralized network access device (e.g., an ANC 202 in FIG. 2) anddistributed network access device (e.g., DU 208 in FIG. 2). In the firstoption 505-a, an RRC layer 510 and a PDCP layer 515 may be implementedby the central unit, and an RLC layer 520, a MAC layer 525, and a PHYlayer 530 may be implemented by the DU. In various examples the CU andthe DU may be collocated or non-collocated. The first option 505-a maybe useful in a macro cell, micro cell, or pico cell deployment.

A second option 505-b shows a unified implementation of a protocolstack, in which the protocol stack is implemented in a single networkaccess device (e.g., access node (AN), new radio base station (NR BS), anew radio Node-B (NR NB), a network node (NN), or the like.). In thesecond option, the RRC layer 510, the PDCP layer 515, the RLC layer 520,the MAC layer 525, and the PHY layer 530 may each be implemented by theAN. The second option 505-b may be useful in a femto cell deployment.

Regardless of whether a network access device implements part or all ofa protocol stack, a UE may implement an entire protocol stack (e.g., theRRC layer 510, the PDCP layer 515, the RLC layer 520, the MAC layer 525,and the PHY layer 530).

FIG. 6 is a diagram 600 showing an example of a DL-centric subframe. TheDL-centric subframe may include a control portion 602. The controlportion 602 may exist in the initial or beginning portion of theDL-centric subframe. The control portion 602 may include variousscheduling information and/or control information corresponding tovarious portions of the DL-centric subframe. In some configurations, thecontrol portion 602 may be a physical DL control channel (PDCCH), asindicated in FIG. 6. The DL-centric subframe may also include a DL dataportion 604. The DL data portion 604 may sometimes be referred to as thepayload of the DL-centric subframe. The DL data portion 604 may includethe communication resources utilized to communicate DL data from thescheduling entity (e.g., UE or BS) to the subordinate entity (e.g., UE).In some configurations, the DL data portion 604 may be a physical DLshared channel (PDSCH).

The DL-centric subframe may also include a common UL portion 606. Thecommon UL portion 606 may sometimes be referred to as an UL burst, acommon UL burst, and/or various other suitable terms. The common ULportion 606 may include feedback information corresponding to variousother portions of the DL-centric subframe. For example, the common ULportion 606 may include feedback information corresponding to thecontrol portion 602. Non-limiting examples of feedback information mayinclude an ACK signal, a NACK signal, a HARQ indicator, and/or variousother suitable types of information. The common UL portion 606 mayinclude additional or alternative information, such as informationpertaining to random access channel (RACH) procedures, schedulingrequests (SRs), and various other suitable types of information. Asillustrated in FIG. 6, the end of the DL data portion 604 may beseparated in time from the beginning of the common UL portion 606. Thistime separation may sometimes be referred to as a gap, a guard period, aguard interval, and/or various other suitable terms. This separationprovides time for the switch-over from DL communication (e.g., receptionoperation by the subordinate entity (e.g., UE)) to UL communication(e.g., transmission by the subordinate entity (e.g., UE)). One ofordinary skill in the art will understand that the foregoing is merelyone example of a DL-centric subframe and alternative structures havingsimilar features may exist without necessarily deviating from theaspects described herein.

FIG. 7 is a diagram 700 showing an example of an UL-centric subframe.The UL-centric subframe may include a control portion 702. The controlportion 702 may exist in the initial or beginning portion of theUL-centric subframe. The control portion 702 in FIG. 7 may be similar tothe control portion described above with reference to FIG. 6. TheUL-centric subframe may also include an UL data portion 704. The UL dataportion 704 may sometimes be referred to as the payload of theUL-centric subframe. The UL portion may refer to the communicationresources utilized to communicate UL data from the subordinate entity(e.g., UE) to the scheduling entity (e.g., UE or BS). In someconfigurations, the control portion 702 may be a physical DL controlchannel (PDCCH).

As illustrated in FIG. 7, the end of the control portion 702 may beseparated in time from the beginning of the UL data portion 704. Thistime separation may sometimes be referred to as a gap, guard period,guard interval, and/or various other suitable terms. This separationprovides time for the switch-over from DL communication (e.g., receptionoperation by the scheduling entity) to UL communication (e.g.,transmission by the scheduling entity). The UL-centric subframe may alsoinclude a common UL portion 706. The common UL portion 706 in FIG. 7 maybe similar to the common UL portion 606 described above with referenceto FIG. 6. The common UL portion 706 may additional or alternativeinclude information pertaining to channel quality indicator (CQI),sounding reference signals (SRSs), and various other suitable types ofinformation. One of ordinary skill in the art will understand that theforegoing is merely one example of an UL-centric subframe andalternative structures having similar features may exist withoutnecessarily deviating from the aspects described herein.

In some circumstances, two or more subordinate entities (e.g., UEs) maycommunicate with each other using sidelink signals. Real-worldapplications of such sidelink communications may include public safety,proximity services, UE-to-network relaying, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V)communications, Internet of Everything (IoE) communications, IoTcommunications, mission-critical mesh, and/or various other suitableapplications. Generally, a sidelink signal may refer to a signalcommunicated from one subordinate entity (e.g., UE1) to anothersubordinate entity (e.g., UE2) without relaying that communicationthrough the scheduling entity (e.g., UE or BS), even though thescheduling entity may be utilized for scheduling and/or controlpurposes. In some examples, the sidelink signals may be communicatedusing a licensed spectrum (unlike wireless local area networks, whichtypically use an unlicensed spectrum).

A UE may operate in various radio resource configurations, including aconfiguration associated with transmitting pilots using a dedicated setof resources (e.g., a radio resource control (RRC) dedicated state,etc.) or a configuration associated with transmitting pilots using acommon set of resources (e.g., an RRC common state, etc.). Whenoperating in the RRC dedicated state, the UE may select a dedicated setof resources for transmitting a pilot signal to a network. Whenoperating in the RRC common state, the UE may select a common set ofresources for transmitting a pilot signal to the network. In eithercase, a pilot signal transmitted by the UE may be received by one ormore network access devices, such as an AN, or a DU, or portionsthereof. Each receiving network access device may be configured toreceive and measure pilot signals transmitted on the common set ofresources, and also receive and measure pilot signals transmitted ondedicated sets of resources allocated to the UEs for which the networkaccess device is a member of a monitoring set of network access devicesfor the UE. One or more of the receiving network access devices, or a CUto which receiving network access device(s) transmit the measurements ofthe pilot signals, may use the measurements to identify serving cellsfor the UEs, or to initiate a change of serving cell for one or more ofthe UEs.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example bearer architecture 800 for acommunication network, such as 5G or NR, according to aspects of thepresent disclosure. As shown, in 5G, there may be a single bearer 802between the eNB and the Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) foreach PDN. The radio bearers (e.g., dedicated radio bearer, default radiobearer) in the RAN (e.g., between the UE and eNB) may follow the currentarchitecture design (e.g., in LTE). In some aspects, however, theseradio bearers in the RAN may be carried in the bearer 802 as long as thebearers belong to the same PDN.

Example QOS Configuration for Wireless Communications in 5G

Current techniques for providing QoS for UE traffic typically do notaccount for channel quality of the UE in the network. Such techniques,therefore, may not be ideal for 5G networks, as these techniques canlead to inefficient allocation of resources and reduced performance inwireless communication networks.

In current techniques, for example, a UE with a higher QoS willgenerally be provided with additional and higher quality service, suchas more resource block allocations and/or more scheduling opportunities.However, when such a high priority UE suffers from bad channel quality,the UE may not be able to receive the higher quality service due in partto multiple hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) retransmissions.Thus, under poor channel conditions, providing high QoS to a UE, alone,may not be effective for improving user experience.

Additionally, in some cases, allocating a large amount of communicationresources to such a UE with poor channel conditions and higher QoS canlead to less resource allocation for other UEs that may possibly havebetter channel conditions. This can reduce the overall system-levelthroughput and capacity.

Further, for a given UE, the channel quality on different layers (e.g.,carrier(s) or antenna(s)) may be significantly different. Thus, in thesecases, the UE may want to put higher priority data, such as voice overLTE (VoLTE), on the layer with the better channel quality, as such datais generally more important and may have to be served faster and morereliably (e.g., compared to lower priority data, such as chat, email,etc.).

Accordingly, to allow for better allocation of resources and/orincreased performance in a network, it may be desirable to allow thewireless communication system to take channel quality into considerationwhen configuring QoS and providing service to a UE.

FIG. 9 illustrates example operations 900 for wireless communications,for example, for providing QoS configurations for wirelesscommunications based on channel quality. According to certain aspects,operations 900 may be performed by a scheduling entity (e.g., such as aneNB 110) and/or core network entity (e.g., P-GW).

Operations 900 begin at 902 where the scheduling entity determines achannel quality for a UE communicating on a wireless channel. At 904,the scheduling entity selects one or more values for one or moreparameters (e.g., packet delay budget, prioritized bit rate, guaranteedbit rate, packet error loss, etc.) for providing QoS to the UE in arange of parameter values based on the determined channel quality. Inone aspect, the scheduling entity may allocate resources on the wirelesschannel to the UE based on the one or more selected values for the oneor more parameters for providing the QoS to the UE.

In some aspects, the range of parameter values in which the schedulingentity selects the parameter value(s) for providing QoS to the UE may bebased in part on a class of service assigned to the UE. As describedbelow, for example, the scheduling entity may assign a user to a classof a plurality of classes. Each class may be associated with aparticular level or range of QoS performance. That is, each class maycorrespond to a different range of values for one or more parameters forproviding QoS. The scheduling entity may select the parameter value(s)for providing QoS to the UE in the range of parameter values thatcorresponds to the UE's assigned class. As further described below, insome aspects, the scheduling entity may further provide a range for eachof the selected parameter value(s) (e.g., within the range of parametervalues corresponding to the UE's assigned class) for providing QoS tothe UE at each channel quality.

In general, since the core network (e.g., P-GW) may not have informationabout the real-time channel quality of the UE, aspects presented hereinprovide a multi-tier QoS configuration scheme. The overall QoSconfiguration may be operated by the core network and/or eNB. Thoughcertain aspects are described as part of a multi-tier scheme, certainaspects/tiers may be practiced/implemented independently as well. Forexample, some aspects may relate to only the first and second tier, someaspects may relate to only the first and third tier, etc.

In one aspect, a first tier of the multi-tier QoS configuration schememay be used to provide coarse QoS configurations for UEs. For example,the core network (e.g., P-GW) may configure coarse bearer-level QoSparameters, such as QoS class identifier (QCI), according to the userclass and traffic type. Multiple user classes may be defined, where eachuser class is associated with a particular level of service.

For example, in one aspect, a first user class (e.g., referred to hereinas Class A user class), a second user class (e.g., referred to herein asClass B user class), and a third user class (e.g., referred to herein asClass C user class) may be defined. The Class A user class may beassociated with a higher level of service compared to the Class B andClass C user classes, and the Class B user class may be associated witha higher level of service compared to the Class C user class. Forexample, the TCP-based traffic from Class A users may be assigned QCI=6bearer, while the TCP-based traffic from Class B users may be assignedQCI=7 bearer.

Note, however, that the above user classes are merely provided asreference examples of the different types of user classes that may beconfigured in a multi-tier QoS configuration. Those of ordinary skill inthe art will recognize that a greater or fewer number of user classesmay be defined for a coarse QoS configuration tier.

In certain wireless networks (e.g., LTE), each QCI generally indicates aperformance value for one or more QoS parameters, such as priority,packet delay budget, packet error loss rate (PER), guaranteed bit rate(GBR)/non-GBR classification, scheduling weight, etc., associated withthe traffic type. For example, in current designs, QCI=6 maps to apacket delay budget of 300 ms, a PER of 10⁻⁶, weight of 36, prioritizedbit rate (PBR) of 16 kilobits per second (kbps), and priority of 11.

According to certain aspects, as opposed to using current definitionsand settings for QCI values, techniques presented herein allow the corenetwork (e.g., in 5G networks) to assign a QCI that is associated with arange of parameter values for QoS parameter(s), rather than a specificvalue for the QoS parameter(s). Referring to QCI=6 as a referenceexample, as opposed to mapping specific values for the QoS parametersdescribed above for QCI=6, QCI=6 (e.g., in 5G) may map to a packet delaybudget in the range of 200 ms-400 ms, a PER in the range of 10⁻⁵-10⁻⁶, aweight in the range of 18-36, a PBR in the range of 8 kbps-64 kbps, anda priority in the range of 10-12. In one aspect, such coarse QoSconfiguration (e.g., with a range of values for QoS parameters for eachuser class) could be achieved through a new definition of QCI.

On the other hand, in some aspects, the coarse QoS configurationdescribed herein could be achieved by leaving current QCI definitionsunchanged and by defining a new QCI value that is associated with arange of values for QoS parameters. In one case, for example, a QCI=106that has the range of values associated with the QoS parameters above(e.g., for QCI=6) could be defined. In some aspects, the range of valuesassociated with QoS parameters for different classes may be defined insome other manner.

In one aspect, the different range of values may partially overlap forone or more classes of the plurality of classes. For example, the rangeof parameter values associated with the Class A user class may partiallyoverlap with the range of parameter values associated with the Class Buser class (e.g., as shown in FIG. 10) and/or the range of parametervalues associated with the Class C user class. Similarly, the range ofparameter values associated with the Class B user class may partiallyoverlap with the range of parameter values associated with the Class Cuser class (e.g., as also shown in FIG. 10).

Once the first tier of the multi-tier QoS configuration is completed, asecond tier of the multi-tier QoS configuration may allow for refiningthe coarse QoS configuration for a UE. That is, in some aspects, oncethe core network has configured bearer-level QCI and QCI relatedparameter ranges, the eNB may configure the communication resources bydynamically adjusting the QCI related parameters based on the real-timechannel quality for the UE communicating on the channel and the overallsystem-level performance.

For example, for a 5G QCI=6 UE (e.g., which may indicate a Class Auser), when the eNB determines that the UE channel quality is below apredefined threshold, the eNB may configure the lowest QoS for the UE.When the eNB determines that the UE channel quality is above apredefined threshold, the eNB may dynamically select QCI relatedparameters within the range configured by the core network based on thechannel quality. In some aspects, there is no threshold and the QCIrelated parameters are always determined dynamically. In some aspects,different QCI related parameters are mapped to different channel qualitymeasurements based on a table of values with corresponding ranges ofchannel quality to corresponding parameter values, functions with aninput of channel quality and outputs of parameter values, etc. In someaspects, the scheduling entity (as shown in FIG. 10) may provide, foreach class of the UE, a range for each of the parameter value(s) forproviding QoS to the UE at each channel quality (e.g., CQI). Each rangeof parameter value(s) (e.g., in the second tier) may be within the rangeof parameter values associated with the coarse QoS configuration (e.g.,in the first tier). The scheduling entity may allocate the resources onthe wireless channel to the UE further based on the range for each ofthe selected parameter value(s).

In some aspects, the eNB may determine the channel quality for the UEcommunicating on the wireless channel based on receipt of a channelquality metric from the UE. Such channel quality metric, for example,may include the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-to-interference plusnoise ratio (SINR), received signal strength indicator (RSSI), etc. Insome aspects, the eNB may determine an updated channel quality for theUE (e.g., based on channel quality metrics received from the UE) andselect updated value(s) for the one or more parameters for providing QoSto the UE in the range of parameter values based on the determinedupdated channel quality. In some aspects, the range of parameter valuesin which in the updated parameter value(s) are selected may correspondto the UE's assigned class.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of how such a refined QoS configurationmay affect the QoS performance for a UE with respect to channel qualityof the UE, according to certain aspects presented herein. As shown,within each class, there may be an associated range for each of theparameter value(s) (e.g., within the coarse QoS configuration) at eachchannel quality. By taking channel quality into consideration, the eNBmay be able to balance the tradeoff between the system level throughputand the QoS of one or more specific UEs to solve one or more of thedrawbacks mentioned above. Note, in FIG. 10, QoS performance may relateto performance for one or more of throughput, delay, jitter, etc.

In addition to the second tier of the multi-tier QoS configuration, theeNB may evaluate the channel condition at finer granularities, e.g.,such as at each layer (e.g., carrier or antenna) in a third tier of themulti-tier QoS configuration (e.g., for a dynamic QoS configuration).Based on the evaluation of the channel quality for each layer, the eNBmay then configure different QoS parameters on the different layers(e.g., in the coarse range of parameter values for the assigned UE classand/or the range of parameter values (within the coarse range ofparameter values) at the channel quality) even for the same QCI traffic.In one aspect, the different layers may correspond to different wirelesscarriers. In one aspect, the different layers may correspond todifferent spatial layers.

For example, assume that a UE with QCI=6 and QCI=7 traffic has betterchannel quality for the layer for the first transport block (TB1)compared to the layer for the second TB (TB2). In this example, in orderto put more QCI=6 traffic on the TB1, the eNB could configure the QoSparameters as follows:

TB 1:

-   -   QCI=6 traffic: PBR=infinity    -   QCI=7 traffic: PBR=8 kbps

TB 2

-   -   QCI=6 traffic: PBR=16 kbps    -   QCI=7 traffic: PBR=8 kbps

As shown above in this example, by configuring the QoS parameters insuch a manner, most of the QCI=6 traffic would be put on the TB1 whichhas better channel quality.

In some aspects, the multi-tier QoS configuration described herein canbe implemented at the eNB side, which generally means that every grant(from the eNB) can include dynamically varying QoS parameters. The UE,in turn, could perform logical channel prioritization based on thevarying QoS parameters. In some aspects, due in part to theimplementation workload, the eNB may just implement the first two tiersof the multi-tier QoS configuration. Further, in some aspects, the UEmay be configured to adjust its own QoS parameters on different layersbased on the real-time channel quality and the received parameters. TheUE may then build the TB according to the adjusted parameters. In thiscase, the UE may have to decode all the grants and bias the QoSparameters after finishing the decoding work.

The methods disclosed herein comprise one or more steps or actions forachieving the described method. The method steps and/or actions may beinterchanged with one another without departing from the scope of theclaims. In other words, unless a specific order of steps or actions isspecified, the order and/or use of specific steps and/or actions may bemodified without departing from the scope of the claims.

As used herein, a phrase referring to “at least one of” a list of itemsrefers to any combination of those items, including single members. Asan example, “at least one of: a, b, or c” is intended to cover a, b, c,a-b, a-c, b-c, and a-b-c, as well as any combination with multiples ofthe same element (e.g., a-a, a-a-a, a-a-b, a-a-c, a-b-b, a-c-c, b-b,b-b-b, b-b-c, c-c, and c-c-c or any other ordering of a, b, and c).

As used herein, the term “determining” encompasses a wide variety ofactions. For example, “determining” may include calculating, computing,processing, deriving, investigating, looking up (e.g., looking up in atable, a database or another data structure), ascertaining and the like.Also, “determining” may include receiving (e.g., receiving information),accessing (e.g., accessing data in a memory) and the like. Also,“determining” may include resolving, selecting, choosing, establishingand the like.

The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in theart to practice the various aspects described herein. Variousmodifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilledin the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied toother aspects. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to theaspects shown herein, but is to be accorded the full scope consistentwith the language claims, wherein reference to an element in thesingular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless specificallyso stated, but rather “one or more.” Unless specifically statedotherwise, the term “some” refers to one or more. All structural andfunctional equivalents to the elements of the various aspects describedthroughout this disclosure that are known or later come to be known tothose of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein byreference and are intended to be encompassed by the claims. Moreover,nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the publicregardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in theclaims. No claim element is to be construed under the provisions of 35U.S.C. § 112, sixth paragraph, unless the element is expressly recitedusing the phrase “means for” or, in the case of a method claim, theelement is recited using the phrase “step for.”

The various operations of methods described above may be performed byany suitable means capable of performing the corresponding functions.The means may include various hardware and/or software component(s)and/or module(s), including, but not limited to a circuit, anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or processor. Generally,where there are operations illustrated in figures, those operations mayhave corresponding counterpart means-plus-function components withsimilar numbering.

For example, means for transmitting and/or means for receiving maycomprise one or more of a transmit processor 420, a TX MIMO processor430, a receive processor 438, or antenna(s) 434 of the base station 110and/or the transmit processor 464, a TX MIMO processor 466, a receiveprocessor 458, or antenna(s) 452 of the user equipment 120.Additionally, means for selecting, means for determining, means forassigning, means for providing, means for configuring, means forallocating, means for generating, means for multiplexing, and/or meansfor applying may comprise one or more processors, such as thecontroller/processor 440 of the base station 110 and/or thecontroller/processor 480 of the user equipment 120.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules and circuits describedin connection with the present disclosure may be implemented orperformed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor(DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device (PLD),discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or anycombination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein.A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in thealternative, the processor may be any commercially available processor,controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also beimplemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combinationof a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one ormore microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration.

If implemented in hardware, an example hardware configuration maycomprise a processing system in a wireless node. The processing systemmay be implemented with a bus architecture. The bus may include anynumber of interconnecting buses and bridges depending on the specificapplication of the processing system and the overall design constraints.The bus may link together various circuits including a processor,machine-readable media, and a bus interface. The bus interface may beused to connect a network adapter, among other things, to the processingsystem via the bus. The network adapter may be used to implement thesignal processing functions of the PHY layer. In the case of a userterminal 120 (see FIG. 1), a user interface (e.g., keypad, display,mouse, joystick, etc.) may also be connected to the bus. The bus mayalso link various other circuits such as timing sources, peripherals,voltage regulators, power management circuits, and the like, which arewell known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further.The processor may be implemented with one or more general-purpose and/orspecial-purpose processors. Examples include microprocessors,microcontrollers, DSP processors, and other circuitry that can executesoftware. Those skilled in the art will recognize how best to implementthe described functionality for the processing system depending on theparticular application and the overall design constraints imposed on theoverall system.

If implemented in software, the functions may be stored or transmittedover as one or more instructions or code on a computer readable medium.Software shall be construed broadly to mean instructions, data, or anycombination thereof, whether referred to as software, firmware,middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise.Computer-readable media include both computer storage media andcommunication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of acomputer program from one place to another. The processor may beresponsible for managing the bus and general processing, including theexecution of software modules stored on the machine-readable storagemedia. A computer-readable storage medium may be coupled to a processorsuch that the processor can read information from, and write informationto, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may beintegral to the processor. By way of example, the machine-readable mediamay include a transmission line, a carrier wave modulated by data,and/or a computer readable storage medium with instructions storedthereon separate from the wireless node, all of which may be accessed bythe processor through the bus interface. Alternatively, or in addition,the machine-readable media, or any portion thereof, may be integratedinto the processor, such as the case may be with cache and/or generalregister files. Examples of machine-readable storage media may include,by way of example, RAM (Random Access Memory), flash memory, ROM (ReadOnly Memory), PROM (Programmable Read-Only Memory), EPROM (ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory), EEPROM (Electrically ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory), registers, magnetic disks, opticaldisks, hard drives, or any other suitable storage medium, or anycombination thereof. The machine-readable media may be embodied in acomputer-program product.

A software module may comprise a single instruction, or manyinstructions, and may be distributed over several different codesegments, among different programs, and across multiple storage media.The computer-readable media may comprise a number of software modules.The software modules include instructions that, when executed by anapparatus such as a processor, cause the processing system to performvarious functions. The software modules may include a transmissionmodule and a receiving module. Each software module may reside in asingle storage device or be distributed across multiple storage devices.By way of example, a software module may be loaded into RAM from a harddrive when a triggering event occurs. During execution of the softwaremodule, the processor may load some of the instructions into cache toincrease access speed. One or more cache lines may then be loaded into ageneral register file for execution by the processor. When referring tothe functionality of a software module below, it will be understood thatsuch functionality is implemented by the processor when executinginstructions from that software module.

Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. Forexample, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or otherremote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair,digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared(IR), radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable,twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, andmicrowave are included in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, asused herein, include compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc,digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, and Blu-ray® disc where disksusually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce dataoptically with lasers. Thus, in some aspects computer-readable media maycomprise non-transitory computer-readable media (e.g., tangible media).In addition, for other aspects computer-readable media may comprisetransitory computer-readable media (e.g., a signal). Combinations of theabove should also be included within the scope of computer-readablemedia.

Thus, certain aspects may comprise a computer program product forperforming the operations presented herein. For example, such a computerprogram product may comprise a computer-readable medium havinginstructions stored (and/or encoded) thereon, the instructions beingexecutable by one or more processors to perform the operations describedherein. For example, instructions for perform the operations describedherein and illustrated in FIG. 9.

Further, it should be appreciated that modules and/or other appropriatemeans for performing the methods and techniques described herein can bedownloaded and/or otherwise obtained by a user terminal and/or basestation as applicable. For example, such a device can be coupled to aserver to facilitate the transfer of means for performing the methodsdescribed herein. Alternatively, various methods described herein can beprovided via storage means (e.g., RAM, ROM, a physical storage mediumsuch as a compact disc (CD) or floppy disk, etc.), such that a userterminal and/or base station can obtain the various methods uponcoupling or providing the storage means to the device. Moreover, anyother suitable technique for providing the methods and techniquesdescribed herein to a device can be utilized.

It is to be understood that the claims are not limited to the preciseconfiguration and components illustrated above. Various modifications,changes and variations may be made in the arrangement, operation anddetails of the methods and apparatus described above without departingfrom the scope of the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for quality of service (QoS)configuration for wireless communications, the method comprising:determining a channel quality for a user equipment communicating on awireless channel; and selecting one or more values for one or moreparameters for providing QoS to the user equipment in a range ofparameter values based on the determined channel quality.
 2. The methodof claim 1, further comprising assigning the user equipment to a classof a plurality of classes, wherein each of the plurality of classescorresponds to a different range of parameter values for providing theQoS.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the range of parameter values inwhich the one or more values for the one or more parameters forproviding the QoS to the user equipment are selected corresponds to theassigned class.
 4. The method of claim 2, further comprising providing,for each of the plurality of classes, a range for each of the one ormore values for the one or more parameters for providing the QoS to theuser equipment at each channel quality.
 5. The method of claim 2,wherein the different range of parameter values partially overlap for afirst class of the plurality of classes and a second class of theplurality of classes.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or moreparameters comprise one or more of packet delay budget, prioritized bitrate, guaranteed bit rate, or packet error loss rate.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein determining the channel quality comprises receiving achannel quality metric from the user equipment.
 8. The method of claim1, further comprising allocating resources on the wireless channel tothe user equipment based on the selected one or more values for the oneor more parameters for providing the QoS to the user equipment.
 9. Themethod of claim 8, further comprising providing a range for each of theselected one or more values for the one or more parameters for providingthe QoS to the user equipment at each channel quality, whereinallocating the resources comprises allocating the resources on thewireless channel to the user equipment further based on the range foreach of the selected one or more values.
 10. The method of claim 1,further comprising: determining an updated channel quality for the userequipment; and selecting one or more updated values for the one or moreparameters for providing the QoS to the user equipment in the range ofparameter values based on the determined updated channel quality. 11.The method of claim 1, wherein determining the channel qualitycomprises: determining a first channel quality for a first layer of thewireless channel; and determining a second channel quality for a secondlayer of the wireless channel, and wherein selecting one or more valuesfor the one or more parameters for providing the QoS to the userequipment comprises: selecting one or more values for the one or moreparameters for providing the QoS to the user equipment on the firstlayer in the range of parameter values based on the determined firstchannel quality; and selecting one or more values for the one or moreparameters for providing the QoS to the user equipment on the secondlayer in the range of parameter values based on the determined secondchannel quality.
 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first layercomprises a first wireless carrier, and wherein the second layercomprises a second wireless carrier.
 13. The method of claim 11, whereinthe first layer comprises a first spatial layer, and wherein the secondlayer comprises a second spatial layer.
 14. An apparatus, comprising: amemory; and a processor, the memory and the processor being configuredto: determine a channel quality for a user equipment communicating on awireless channel; and select one or more values for one or moreparameters for providing quality of service (QoS) to the user equipmentin a range of parameter values based on the determined channel quality.15. The apparatus of claim 14, the memory and the processor beingfurther configured to assign the user equipment to a class of aplurality of classes, wherein each of the plurality of classescorresponds to a different range of parameter values for providing theQoS.
 16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the range of parametervalues in which the one or more values for the one or more parametersfor providing the QoS to the user equipment are selected corresponds tothe assigned class.
 17. The apparatus of claim 15, the memory and theprocessor being further configured to provide, for each of the pluralityof classes, a range for each of the one or more values for the one ormore parameters for providing the QoS to the user equipment at eachchannel quality.
 18. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the differentrange of parameter values partially overlap for a first class of theplurality of classes and a second class of the plurality of classes. 19.The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the one or more parameters compriseone or more of packet delay budget, prioritized bit rate, guaranteed bitrate, or packet error loss rate.
 20. The apparatus of claim 14, whereinthe memory and the processor being configured to determine the channelquality comprises the memory and the processor being configured toreceive a channel quality metric from the user equipment.
 21. Theapparatus of claim 14, the memory and the processor being furtherconfigured to allocate resources on the wireless channel to the userequipment based on the selected one or more values for the one or moreparameters for providing the QoS to the user equipment.
 22. Theapparatus of claim 21, the memory and the processor being furtherconfigured to provide a range for each of the selected one or morevalues for the one or more parameters for providing the QoS to the userequipment at each channel quality, wherein the memory and the processorbeing configured to allocate the resources comprises the memory and theprocessor being configured to allocate the resources on the wirelesschannel to the user equipment further based on the range for each of theselected one or more values.
 23. The apparatus of claim 14, the memoryand the processor being further configured to: determine an updatedchannel quality for the user equipment; and select one or more updatedvalues for the one or more parameters for providing the QoS to the userequipment in the range of parameter values based on the determinedupdated channel quality.
 24. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein thememory and the processor being configured to determine the channelquality comprises the memory and the processor being configured to:determine a first channel quality for a first layer of the wirelesschannel; and determine a second channel quality for a second layer ofthe wireless channel, and wherein the memory and the processor beingconfigured to select one or more values for the one or more parametersfor providing the QoS to the user equipment comprises the memory and theprocessor being configured to: select one or more values for the one ormore parameters for providing the QoS to the user equipment on the firstlayer in the range of parameter values based on the determined firstchannel quality; and select one or more values for the one or moreparameters for providing the QoS to the user equipment on the secondlayer in the range of parameter values based on the determined secondchannel quality.
 25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the first layercomprises a first wireless carrier, and wherein the second layercomprises a second wireless carrier.
 26. The apparatus of claim 24,wherein the first layer comprises a first spatial layer, and wherein thesecond layer comprises a second spatial layer.
 27. A computer readablemedium having instructions stored thereon for performing a method forquality of service (QoS) configuration for wireless communications, themethod comprising: determining a channel quality for a user equipmentcommunicating on a wireless channel; and selecting one or more valuesfor one or more parameters for providing QoS to the user equipment in arange of parameter values based on the determined channel quality. 28.The computer readable medium of claim 27, wherein: the method furthercomprises assigning the user equipment to a class of a plurality ofclasses, wherein each of the plurality of classes corresponds to adifferent range of parameter values for providing the QoS; and the rangeof parameter values in which the one or more values for the one or moreparameters for providing the QoS to the user equipment are selectedcorresponds to the assigned class.
 29. An apparatus, comprising: meansfor determining a channel quality for a user equipment communicating ona wireless channel; and means for selecting one or more values for theone or more parameters for providing quality of service (QoS) to theuser equipment in a range of parameter values based on the determinedchannel quality.
 30. The apparatus of claim 29, further comprising meansfor assigning the user equipment to a class of a plurality of classes,wherein each of the plurality of classes corresponds to a differentrange of parameter values for providing the QoS, and wherein the rangeof parameter values in which the one or more values for the one or moreparameters for providing the QoS to the user equipment are selectedcorresponds to the assigned class.